For almost the entire third period, the Rangers did everything they could to come back and win against the Avalanche. Twice in a back-and-forth game, they rallied back from a pair of two-goal deficits to tie the score.

After Artemi Panarin scored his team-leading 21st goal to tie the game back up with 4:58 remaining, they had a power play with a chance to win it late. Instead, a costly mistake led to the Rangers suffering a crushing 5-4 loss to the Avalanche in regulation. It was their first regulation defeat in 11 games. After coming out of the box, Cale Makar intercepted an errant Will Borgen pass inside his own blue line and then set up Artturi Lehkonen for the game-winner with 14.7 seconds left.

At that moment, K’Andre Miller moved the puck up top for an open Borgen at the right point with 21 seconds to go. He had enough time and space to make a better decision. The recently re-signed defenseman made an error in judgement by trying a low percentage pass across the blue line that went behind his intended target, Panarin who was still on during a long shift. That didn’t excuse him from quitting on the play defensively. He let Lehkonen skate by him and finish off a three-on-one by scoring his 20th from Makar at 19:45 of the third period.

While Borgen messed up on the play, he got back but couldn’t take the pass away. Vincent Trocheck also came back hard to take away the middle option. Had Panarin not given up completely, we’re not talking about a bad loss in regulation. The game would’ve at least gone to overtime. Twelve days ago, it was Lehkonen who scored the tying goal to force OT in a game Colorado won 3-2 on a Devon Toews goal. He again delivered a crushing blow but only this time, the Rangers didn’t get a point. They threw it away and got nothing out of a winnable game. The second one they’ve had against the Avalanche in two weeks.

It’s inexcusable at this point of the season for this team to make these kinds of mistakes in big games. Every point matters. They’re locked in a tight playoff race battling with several teams for the wild card. Even more frustrating is that had they come back and won, they could’ve been eight behind the Devils for third place inside the division. If you’ve watched the Devils lately, you know that’s not insurmountable. Especially with Jacob Markstrom expected out for at least the next month due to an MCL sprain. Instead, the Rangers remained 10 points behind the Devils and failed to gain any ground on the Blue Jackets, Lightning, and Senators.

Even worse, they hadn’t played since Thursday when they defeated the Flyers. The Avalanche were playing their second consecutive game after losing to the Bruins on Saturday. They should have been ripe for the pickings. Instead, a rested Rangers team made several mistakes that cost them against a tired opponent who clearly were on the ropes late in the third period.

For Colorado, it was their second game with new acquisitions Martin Necas and Jack Drury, who both came over from Carolina in the three-team blockbuster trade that sent popular star Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes along with former Blackhawk Taylor Hall in a three-team trade. Both Necas and Drury were factors against the Rangers. Necas recorded a pair of assists while Drury scored his first goal with the Avalanche.

It was the explosive Avs’ offense that got off to a quick start. Following a nice deflection goal from Drury on a Keaton Middleton shot that put them ahead, Nathan MacKinnon and Necas combined to find Makar open at the point for his 17th goal to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead. They struck twice within a 43-second span to put the Rangers down two. On the Makar tally, neither Mika Zibanejad nor Reilly Smith covered the vacated area.

Trailing by two, the Blueshirts got back in it thanks to another positive contribution from the fourth line. On some sustained pressure down low, Matt Rempe came out and got a tough backhand on Mackenzie Blackwood that he couldn’t control. That allowed Sam Carrick to pounce on the rebound for his fifth at 7:10. Urho Vaakanainen picked up a secondary assist, giving him helpers in three straight. He’s quietly played well while teamed with Braden Schneider on the third pair.

Less than two minutes later, the Rangers evened the game thanks to the top line. On a play started by Panarin in his end, he sent Alexis Lafreniere and Trocheck in on a two-on-one, with Lafreniere patiently waiting for Sam Girard to go down so before passing across for an easy Trocheck tap in at 8:36.

With the game tied and Adam Fox off for holding Parker Kelly, it took the Avalanche only 23 seconds to retake the lead on another blast from the point from Makar on the power play. Once again, it was the combination of Necas and MacKinnon who found Makar open for his 18th goal, which leads all NHL defensemen this season. He can’t be given any room because he is so lethal. Makar loves to get the puck and move to the left and shoot against the grain. Igor Shesterkin stood no chance on the Makar rocket that made it 3-2 Avalanche with 5:24 left in the period.

Filip Chytil and Arthur Kaliyev came close to tying it before the period expired. But Blackwood stopped Kaliyev on the doorstep to keep his team in front. It wasn’t the last time he would stone Kaliyev. Early in the second period, with the third line buzzing, Blackwood again turned away Kaliyev twice and Chytil. Despite being caught on for two goals against, that line generated scoring chances. Along with Chris Kreider, who no longer looks like he misses Mika Zibanejad, the Chytil line is starting to find chemistry. They look like they’re close to breaking out. Maybe it’ll happen in the next game against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.

For a while, the game remained 3-2 in favor of the Avalanche. The Rangers had a bit of luck thanks to the Avs hitting the goalpost. That included Necas firing a laser off the crossbar with Colorado on the power play. Considering how good Rantanen was, Necas looks like he’ll fit right in with MacKinnon and Makar. He hasn’t scored much lately but that’s bound to change as long as he continues playing on the top line.

On another effective shift from the fourth line, Rempe got off a good shot right on Blackwood, who managed to kick it out. Since returning from the eight-game suspension, Rempe’s playing with much more confidence. He’s making the most of his shifts by being more impactful on the forecheck. The trio of Rempe, Carrick, and Adam Edstrom have been getting it done both offensively and defensively. That’s allowed Peter Laviolette to trust them more in close games.

The Avalanche took advantage of a Panarin fanned clearing attempt to surge back ahead by two with 3:59 remaining. After Borgen sent the puck around to Panarin, he failed to clear the zone, resulting in Casey Mittelstadt picking it off and feeding Jusso Parssinen for a quick one-timer that beat Shesterkin for a 4-2 lead.

But the Rangers were able to respond just over two minutes later. With less than two minutes left, some superb work along the boards led to Borgen cutting the deficit back to one. Will Cuylle centered the puck from behind the net for a Reilly Smith shot that rebounded right to Borgen who buried it for his second goal as a Ranger with 1:55 remaining.

In the third period, the Rangers controlled almost the entirety. However, they blew a chance to tie the game on the power play. In fact, a Fox turnover nearly led to Logan O’Connor scoring shorthanded. Fortunately, his backhand attempt missed its target.

Makar thought he had the second hat trick of his career when he beat Shesterkin again. However, both refs immediately waived it off due to Miles Wood being in the crease where he made contact with Lafreniere by shoving him into Shesterkin, who had no chance to make a play on the puck. They got it right for a change, negating what would’ve been Makar’s third goal of the game. He dominated it like the elite defenseman he is.

As the third moved on, the Rangers kept getting closer and closer to finding the equalizer only for Blackwood to make the big saves. That finally changed with under five minutes left. On a good read from Lafreniere, he came off the ice for Smith on a line change. Smith carried the puck into the offensive zone where he centered for a Trocheck shot that bounced right to Panarin for the game-tying goal at 15:02.

With the game tied at four, it looked like the Rangers would find a way to come back and win it. With Makar off for holding the stick of Lafreniere, out came the number one unit. Following a Blackwood freezing the puck with 1:20 left, Laviolette used his timeout to rest his best players. At worst, they should have come out with at least a point. There was still 56 seconds remaining on the five-on-four.

The best chance came when Panarin got the puck into Zibanejad’s wheelhouse for a one-timer from the left circle that Blackwood made a clutch glove save on with Kreider standing in front. He was unable to tip it in or distract Blackwood enough on the scoring chance with exactly a minute left. On the final part of the man-advantage, Zibanejad made one of those telegraphed passes to the middle of the ice for an easy Avs’ clear, which basically killed any chance of them taking the lead.

When Miller and Borgen came on the ice to replace Fox and Zibanejad, it looked like they were in good shape. Miller had the puck down low and made a good pass up top for Borgen, who was open. He could’ve taken a shot at that point. Any shot towards the net isn’t a bad play with 20 seconds remaining in a tie game. Instead, he overthought it by going for a cross-ice pass to a spent Panarin, who should’ve gotten off the ice when he had a chance to. Instead, he overstayed his shift, which is something he’s done before. The end result was disastrous.

With nobody communicating with Borgen that Makar was coming back from serving the penalty, the explosive Avalanche defenseman picked off the errant pass and took off like a jet into the Rangers’ zone for a three-on-one. With Trocheck hustling back and Panarin not even in the picture, Makar perfectly dished across for a Lehkonen one-timer upstairs that ended the game.

There wouldn’t be any overtime this time. It was about as bad a loss as it sounds. One of the worst the Rangers have suffered in recent memory. Combined with the Senators winning over Utah HC to vault past the Bruins, Lightning and Blue Jackets up to 56 points, the Rangers are three behind the Bolts for the second wild card with one more game played (49-48) and one more regulation win (22-21). They trail the Bruins by four points but have two games in hand and four more RW. The problem is that they still are behind the Blue Jackets and Canadiens with the Red Wings lurking right behind. Even the Islanders are up to 49 points thanks to a four-game winning streak.

It’s anyone’s guess who will squeak in. When you play as poorly as the Rangers did for a six week stretch, there isn’t much margin for error. Games like Sunday could come back to haunt them. There’s still a lot of time left with the Rangers having 33 games remaining. Today’s loss hurt but it’s not the end. If they can respond well by beating the Hurricanes and then taking what amounts to a big game against the Bruins next Saturday to conclude January, that would show a lot of character.

They didn’t play poorly against the Avalanche. However, the execution was a little bit off. Compared to what we’ve seen lately with the improved team defense that had allowed Shesterkin to get hot, they beat themselves. You can’t allow as dangerous an opponent like the Avs to get those kinds of chances. They’ll make you pay.